CAFES and restaurants in Kuching district are now limited to having only 50% of their usual capacity in a new ruling announced by the state disaster management committee to cut the spread of the infection.

The ruling will come into force tomorrow.

Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah, who chairs the disaster management committee, also said gatherings, whether they are private, social or government public functions, are limited to only 200 people.

He said the rules were made after assessing the current situation in the state.

Uggah also warned organisers of such gatherings to comply fully with all the health protocols – observing social distancing, making hand sanitisers available, and wearing of face mask – or risk stern actions.

Sarawak today detected six more new Covid-19 infections, all in the Kuching district.

That brings the total number of cases in the state since the pandemic broke out in March to 942.

Three of the new infections were close contacts of victims from the Wisma Saberkas cluster, one from the Greenhill cluster, while two had gone for voluntary screening at a private hospital and a government respectively.

The new infection from the Greenhill cluster was the domestic helper of another victim.

Uggah also said 12 victims have recovered and discharged from hospitals statewide – 11 of them from Sarawak General Hospital in Kuching (SGH) while the other is from the Bintulu hospital.

The number of patients still under treatment is 134 – 107 at SGH, 23 in the Miri hospital, and two in the Bintulu and Sibu hospitals respectively. – November 5, 2020.